Dental Crises
Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes: I ask the Attorney General, representing the Minister for Health, the following question without notice. Is the Minister aware that in order to maintain existing levels of dental service in Australia there will be a shortage of about 1,500 dental and oral health workers Australia-wide—or a shortfall of 3.8 million visits by 2010—and that Australia has a rate of 46.8 practising dentists per 100,000 of the population, which ranks nineteenth on a list of OECD countries? Is the Minister aware that there is a lack of professional staff needed to address the dental crises, particularly in the State’s rural areas such as on the western slopes of the Blue Mountains, Broken Hill, Albury, Orange-Bathurst and on the Central Coast? Will the Minister inform the House about the future of the School Dental Service Scheme and give an assurance that children in New South Wales will continue to access free dental care, especially in low socioeconomic areas that have no local dental therapists?
The Hon. John Hatzistergos: I will refer the question to the Minister for Health.
Deferred answer to Dental Crises
On the 14 May 2008 the Attorney General, representing the Minister for Health, was asked a three-part question without notice by Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes concerning dental services. The Minister for Health has provided the following response:
The NSW Chief Dental Officer advises that the information that the Member quotes was published in a 2003 report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW], and relates to the situation in 2000.
Shortages of health professionals in rural areas, including dentists, are a national issue and are being addressed in rural and regional New South Wales. Initiatives include:
· The NSW initiative of an International Dental Graduate Program has provided up to 10 new placements to rural and regional areas.
· Recruitment and retention of dentists and dental therapists has been significantly advanced in the public sector with the new Oral Health Workers Award which gives dentists a 15% pay rise and provides for the new classes of oral health practitioners. New career structures have been created for dental staff that will encourage them to remain in clinical practice.
· There is a state-wide schedule for the upgrade of rural dental clinics and links of regional and rural clinical schools are being strengthened.
In addition, a new dental school has been created at Charles Sturt University. Clinical teaching and service clinics at Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Dubbo and Orange are either currently under construction or in advanced planning stages.
The Chief Dental Officer has further advised that New South Wales provides access to free public dental care for all New South Wales children from 0 to 18 years of age through a Child and Adult Oral Health Service integrated with community health and outpatient care in each Area Health Service. New South Wales does not operate a School Dental Service along the same lines as other jurisdictions where children are enrolled in a comprehensive assessment and treatment program based on dental clinics (fixed or mobile) in school grounds. There is strong evidence that this mode of operation is no longer an effective and efficient means of targeting dental prevention and services to children and adolescents in greatest need.
